


Comet

by Writerleft



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Day 5: Space Girlfriends, Drabble, F/F, Korrasami Week 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8115736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writerleft/pseuds/Writerleft
Summary: Sozin's Comet is going to hit the planet! Only two intrepid astronauts can stop it. I'm sorry.





	

“Zaofu, we have a problem,” Asami reported over the radio. She didn't expect any response—they couldn't fit a powerful enough receiver on the craft to be worthwhile—but she had every reason to believe she'd be heard. “We've matched pace with the comet, but Korra hasn't been able to earthbend it. She says there's no metal either.”

“There's no metal either!” Korra added, casting Asami a worried look through her helmet.

Asami shook her head, looking out the tiny window. “If it's made of something you can't bend...”

She didn't need to finish the sentence. They were both thinking of the family they had left behind. Their son and daughters, their grandchildren on the way that neither of them would get to see. They'd known this was a one-way trip—it had taken all of the world's resources to send a ship into space to begin with, and the technology simply didn't exist for it to return. The Avatar had been called on, again, to sacrifice herself to save everything—Sozin's Comet—already the source of so much death—was days away from slamming into the planet.

Korra had had to go.

Asami wouldn't let her go alone.

Besides, she needed a pilot.

“We need to land,” Korra said.

“We're not equipped for that,” Asami stated. “Find me a flat spot.”

Korra kicked over, her glove caressing Asami's helmet. She'd never feel Korra's skin again. “We're going to make it work. It can't be a coincidence that the comet was destined to crash into us just as we got smart enough to come up to meet it.”

“I'm not sure about all that,” Asami said as Korra strapped herself down, “but I'm not about to let it kill our family and destroy the world. We knew this was a one-way trip anyway.”

Korra's pressed her lips thin, weary eyes full of resolve. “Given my teens, I should be proud to have survived this long. Hopefully, the next Avatar will at least get to fifty.”

Asami didn't want to think about the next Avatar. Didn't want to deal with how much they were sacrificing—only how much they were saving.

She maneuvered the craft deftly to a flat spot on the comet's side, finding that it had a strange amount of give. Still, their rickety can of ship held up.

Korra unbuckled, pulling herself along the walls. “You're sure I can't use fire?”

She was just thinking aloud, Asami knew. They were both aware of the vacuum outside the capsule—leaving airbending out as an option, too.

Her fingers began to tremble. The entire world had worked together, cooperating more closely than anybody had thought possible in the face of this existential threat, all to desperately hurl the Avatar and her brilliant wife at the problem once again. And, somehow, they'd made it work. Somehow, they'd built a functional rocket, built a ship that could meet up with the comet, developed systems to let them survive long enough to get there... and there was nothing they could do?

Asami shook her head. There was always something she could do. Korra was the payload, she was the only thing the world could think of that could stop something so massive, but Asami was there in case something didn't go to plan.

“We have the metal of the ship,” Asami said. “The suit can keep you alive for an hour or two. Could you break it apart that way?”

“I thought you said that would do more damage than hitting in one big hunk.”

“I'm thinking aloud here... maybe if... okay, maybe if we fill the capsule with whatever it's made of out there, you can stand on the surface and move it. Sort of, hammer it up and down against the comet, just enough to change its path.”

“That would work?”

“In theory. You'd be exerting an ourside force. You'd have to hit it a lot, though, and the ship would certainly break apart first.”

Korra sighed. “Earthbending is out. No fire, obviously not air...” She hooked one foot beneath a toehold, and took a waterbending stance.

Asami closed her eyes, thinking desperately. She had to think of something.

Korra's breath caught. “Asami... waterbending worked.

Her eyes shot open. “What?”

“This thing... the comet is one huge chunk of ice.”

“That's... you know what, I'm not even going to argue. Okay. You can get out there, and start breaking off bits and hurling them in different directions. Nothing bigger than the ship itself, they need to be small enough to burn up and not do damage—”

“I can do better than that,” Korra said, nodding at the window.

Asami looked out, and as Korra bent, she saw an entire hunk of the comet slough off into mist. “Ice into fog,” she breathed. “Korra, that's brilliant!”

Korra started laughing. “The Boy in the Iceberg,” she muttered.

“What?”

“A big block of ice saved the Avatar's life once,” she said, a manic grin on her face. “Maybe it can work again?”

Asami's eyes went wide. “You're not thinking we could RIDE the comet back home?!”

“Just ride it? Heck no. But you kept drilling into me about physics, about equal-and-opposite reactions, and maybe...”

“We're going REALLY fast, Korra.”

“But the smaller this thing gets, the easier it'll be to slow down, right? I know we'll keep falling faster and faster, but if I can keep knocking off bits to slow us down and steer us...”

She bit her lip. There was a plethora of scientific reasons why this couldn't work. She didn't dare hope.

Two daughters and a son. “I want to see our grandchild,” Asami breathed. “And it's not like we have anything to lose.”

Korra moved to the hatch. “Stay here, tell me how well it's all working. Radio Zaofu, tell them what we're trying.”

Asami nodded. “Korra,” she said, as her wife was ducking through the door.

Korra paused, locking gazes.

“If this works... we deserve a vacation.

Korra smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, pretty sure this is going to be the weakest of my Korrasami Week entries this year. My pathological inability to write AUs led me to a pretty outlandish situation, and the science I'm handwaving all over the place makes me wince, hah. But there you go. Korrasami in space. Could I have gone further, actually shown if their plan works or not? Yeah, but I didn't want to write this one anymore and it's late and I'm tired. 
> 
> There might be a seed of a fun idea here, and the timeline does allow for some interaction with the Comet just a couple decades after the show. If anyone is inspired, feel free to run with the premise. 
> 
> Don't show my rocket scientist friends this story. They'll disown me. 
> 
> The next two will be better. Though probably out of order. Because reasons.


End file.
